I am back to work at a retail management job. I work a lot. A lot. My last job was about 35 hours a week this one is like 55-60. Its brutal but I need to provide and I'm happy to be at work again. So my time is limited. I want to support a system that I feel rewards me as a customer. I want to support a company that cares about my involvement. Selfish? Sure. It's my needs though. I am not asking anyone else to follow my path.
I have decided to support Mantic due to the fact that they do care. Our YouTube channel got a response from Ronnie Renton today. That meant a lot to me. We didn't ask for free stuff but rather feedback. What can we do to help? We wanted to know. He got us in touch with his North American guy and good things will come from that. The Mantic forums are full of guys who want feedback about rules, points, issues and unforeseen scenarios. These guys don't get paid for this but rather due it to improve the game. That's huge, or to quote Trump "That's YUGE!!!" I'm American forgive me and my country for supporting this golden wig wearing sociopath. Moving on...
I decided I will no longer support companies that do not care about my interest in their products. So I will no longer own models or armies that i could possibly buy from that company again. That's all. Managing retail gives me a unique outlook on this. I need to know if a customer is unhappy. I cannot fix it otherwise. I actively ask my customers "what else?" I have to know, the customer who doesn't speak up and walks away you will never get that customer back. As much as the complainers drive me nuts it allows me to avoid the same issues with other customers.
It's not about negativity, rather its about putting my money where my mouth is. If KOW is so great and it is! Check out our YouTube channel to see the smile on my friggin face! I need to support Mantic with model purchases. They do not grow otherwise. Full stop end of story. We can as a community buy them out of rule books day in and day out but that wont get it done. We need to support them and other companies that are engaged with US! The WarMaHordes guys already got this down. We need to follow suit.
My time and money are a big deal to me. This is money I am not spending on my children and time I am not spending with my family. This is weekend trips I am not taking with them This is dinners I am missing due to playing a game. This is part of my life. I need to make sure that the resources I put into this are not wasted on those that do not deserve it. I just feel another British company deserves it and another doesn't. Its not due to wrongs being done to me mind you. GW never set out to hurt me. Never actively tried to sabotage my hobby, never sent me hate email when I had a customer compliant. Mantic has actively engaged me and demanded my feedback. That's why ultimately. If they don't care then that's OK. However my hobby money and time requires that they do care. Not everyone needs that. I do.
So I in the process of selling my Horus Heresy army. I fully expect the transaction to process today. I'll be using that money to buy Mantic Ogres for my second KOW army. I'm thrilled about this. It's a new beginning for me. I can finally change up our batrps!! No more Herd vs Undead foreva!!! Thank Christ, our fans are like "awesome batreps keep'em coming but umm hey do you guys per chance have anything else you could play army wise?" Our response is always the same positive tone "NO! DONATE OR NO BATREPS FOR YOU!!" We don't actually say that... I think. Thanks for reading see you around the way....
Great article. I really enjoy you guys' videos. Helped me to understand the mechanics of the game more. Playing my first game of KoW tonight at my FLGS. Stoked.
ReplyDeleteI feel they are separate genres though. I would have kept the army and added to it to play Mantic's Sci Fi game.
ReplyDeleteGW is moving towards verticle integration and streamlining like a traditional CPG company. In other words, they want company owned stores and streamlined product offerings with constant new product releases. On paper, this is very profitable. In reality, they alienate their existing customer base in search of a newer and less informed clientele.
With the Internet playing such a huge role now in consumer purchases and more importantly, information and knowledge, the challenge for any company is to remain not only profitable but viable.
In addition to what you have stated you like about Mantic, I will add that they are open to not only the use of other figures but of "home brewed" army lists and unit dubstitutions. They hope in turn to sell their figures, rules, etc. to the gamer.
What this does for them is create instant consumer loyalty. At first it seems that they lose business with these practices but they actually magnify their potential customer base by exponential magnitudes.
From my perspective, I get to use my historical figures right away and have the choice of playing with them in a KoW tournament as they are or play other opponents of historical or fantasy based armies. In the meantime, I am deciding what fantasy army I would like to do next, with Mantic figures being my first choice.
My reasoning for Mantic:
1. Price is right
2. Good release schedule for new products
3. Reworking of existing product lines for improvement
4. Just fantastic quality
5. The very fact they are a more open system actually draws me to looking at Mantic first for miniature purchases
As a marketer, I respect what GW is trying to do and will probably still buy their products. As a consumer, Mantic is making it possible for me to jump in quickly and blend fantasy and historical easily. This, combined with your stated reasoning from the game mechanics input, makes me not only a new Mantic customer but also a loyal Mantic customer.
As a brand, GW has forgotten one of the cardinal rules of marketing, namely, meeting the needs of the Customer. This happens when you follow the 4 P's of marketing but forget the 4 C's. The first C is the Consumer/Customer. Half baked marketing approaches lead to market share decline.
I am not sure how Mantic has developed their business model. More than likely, it wasn't due to an MBA level market study... lol. But they sure managed to get their business model correct from a marketing and consumer perspective. My hats off to Mantic for paving they way in this industry!
Mantic's chief games designer is Alessio Cavatore, a veteran wargames writer who worked for GW for over 10 years writing army books and core rules. He left them in 2010. Mantic's success shows that the key to a good wargame is to write a fun GAME (wow.) Unfortunately for those those of us who really liked the warhammer universes, GW only cares about selling plastic and licensing its Intellectual Property now. The rules-writers have moved on.
DeleteI feel they are separate genres though. I would have kept the army and added to it to play Mantic's Sci Fi game.
ReplyDeleteGW is moving towards verticle integration and streamlining like a traditional CPG company. In other words, they want company owned stores and streamlined product offerings with constant new product releases. On paper, this is very profitable. In reality, they alienate their existing customer base in search of a newer and less informed clientele.
With the Internet playing such a huge role now in consumer purchases and more importantly, information and knowledge, the challenge for any company is to remain not only profitable but viable.
In addition to what you have stated you like about Mantic, I will add that they are open to not only the use of other figures but of "home brewed" army lists and unit dubstitutions. They hope in turn to sell their figures, rules, etc. to the gamer.
What this does for them is create instant consumer loyalty. At first it seems that they lose business with these practices but they actually magnify their potential customer base by exponential magnitudes.
From my perspective, I get to use my historical figures right away and have the choice of playing with them in a KoW tournament as they are or play other opponents of historical or fantasy based armies. In the meantime, I am deciding what fantasy army I would like to do next, with Mantic figures being my first choice.
My reasoning for Mantic:
1. Price is right
2. Good release schedule for new products
3. Reworking of existing product lines for improvement
4. Just fantastic quality
5. The very fact they are a more open system actually draws me to looking at Mantic first for miniature purchases
As a marketer, I respect what GW is trying to do and will probably still buy their products. As a consumer, Mantic is making it possible for me to jump in quickly and blend fantasy and historical easily. This, combined with your stated reasoning from the game mechanics input, makes me not only a new Mantic customer but also a loyal Mantic customer.
As a brand, GW has forgotten one of the cardinal rules of marketing, namely, meeting the needs of the Customer. This happens when you follow the 4 P's of marketing but forget the 4 C's. The first C is the Consumer/Customer. Half baked marketing approaches lead to market share decline.
I am not sure how Mantic has developed their business model. More than likely, it wasn't due to an MBA level market study... lol. But they sure managed to get their business model correct from a marketing and consumer perspective. My hats off to Mantic for paving they way in this industry!
I am glad to see that I am not the only one that think this way. Currently I am looking to sell off a large Necron force to fund the Warpath kickstarter, but cant bring myself to sell of my fantasy armies. Just too much time an effort into them, too many memories. But I will be starting a new army and plan on it being Mantic only.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the best KoW batt-reps on the internet, please keep them coming.
Thanks for the replies gents! I'm glad I'm not alone in this struggle. I loved 40k but I can't allow my nostalgia to cloud my judgement. I'm relieved to be walking away on my terms..
ReplyDeleteGood stuff. Love the bat-reps. I haven't done mass fantasy in years. Haven't done 28mm in a longer time. I actually am looking at breaking out my 10mm stuff for KoW. What I like about Mantic is they support gaming in general just not their stuff. It makes me excited about gaming again. Just the fact that they watched your batreps and sent you a response is what the hobby is all about. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I understand where you're coming from
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing with my WFB armies
Couldn't get into the Cost of err I mean
age of sigmar
And I am really enjoying your videos
Oh and another thing don't diss Trump or apologize
look what we have in the White House now
Scccccarrrrryyyyyyy